Guide to 12 Disruptive Technologies

What is a disruptive technology? According to Clayton M. Christensen, an Harvard Business School professor a disruptive technology is a new emerging technology that unexpectedly displaces an established one. Christensen used this term for the first time in his 1997 best-selling book entitled “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. In it the author established two categories of new technologies: sustaining and disruptive. Sustaining technologies corresponds to well-known technologies that undergo successive improvements, whereas Disruptive technologies means new technologies that still lack refinement, often have performance problems, are just known to a limited public, and might not yet have a proven practical application. Disruption can be seen at a different angle, if we look at how the word means, something that drastically alters or destroys the structure of society. Disruptive technologies hold within themselves the capacity to alter our lifestyle, what we mean by work, business and the global economy. What are those technologies? And what will be the benefit they will bring to the world where we live in?

According to a report published by the McKinsey Global Institute, there are 12 technologies that can produce great disruption in our near future as they might transform the economy and our lives. McKinsey Global Institute report also offers quantitative data on how the outlined technologies can impact the economy, and what are the risks these will bring. Curiously, the concepts behind those technologies have been around for a long time. Here we outline a list of 12 of the most disruptive technologies:

1. Mobile Internet

Increasingly inexpensive and capable mobile computing devices and Internet connectivity is already bringing benefits to a wide spectrum of areas, as . One of these is the treatment of chronic diseases through remote health monitoring. Another one is the mobile banking platforms that are known to have produced already radical changes in some countries in Africa such as Uganda.

iBGStar® Diabetes Manager App will make the regular checking of blood glucose easier as you can just connect the iBGStar – the blood glucose meter to connect to your Apple iPhone or iPod touch, and get your results instantly, anywhere and anytime on the move.

2. Automation of knowledge work

There will be more intelligent software systems that can perform knowledge work tasks. In an interview to McKinsey, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, refers to the radical changes these intelligent software systems will bring to us and the way we connect with the computer, looking at it through the brighter side:

“So I think we’re going to go from the sort of command-and-control interfaces where you tell the computer like a dog, “Bark,” to a situation where the computer becomes much more of a friend.And, a friend in the sense that the computer says, “Well, we kind of know what you care about.” And again, you’ve given it permission to do this. And it says, “Well, maybe you should do this” or “Maybe you should do that.”

Intelligent technologies might also provoke fear, and raise the very old debate of the machine versus human being.

3. Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (or IoT for short), a term coined by Kevin Ashton in 2009, refers to uniquely identifiable objects and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure. Equipping all objects in the world with minuscule identifying devices or machine-readable identifiers can transform daily life. These are all interconnected in networks of low cost sensors and actuators for data collection, monitoring, decision making and process optimization. Such devices can be used for example in manufacturing, health care and mining. There can be dangers as well, as the connection of billions of smart devices can represent a real security threat.

Internet Of Things

4. Advanced robotics

This is an exciting area that promises a lot. Advanced robotics corresponds to increasingly capable robots or robotic tools, with enhanced “senses,” dexterity, and intelligence. They can perform tasks once thought too delicate or uneconomical to automate. These technologies can bring amazing benefits to society, including robotic surgical systems that make procedures less invasive, robotic prosthetics and “exoskeletons” that restore functions of amputees and the elderly.

The Microprocessor C-Leg. An example of advanced robotics technology

5.Cloud

The use of computer hardware and software resources to deliver services over the Internet or a network is already there as we all know, and developing at fast speed.

Infographic about Cloud and Services

6. Autonomous or Near-Autonomous Vehicles

This corresponds to vehicles that can navigate and operate autonomously or semi-autonomously in many situations, using advanced sensors like LIDAR, and systems of communication from machine to machines. In an article published in Time Magazine in 2013 Chris Anderson cites some of the new applications of these advanced robotics devices, speaking about the new uses of drones:

Some of these new users are farmers, who early on spotted that drones were a great way to perform crop surveys and field analysis. Unlike satellites, which fly above the clouds and are too expensive to target on demand, farm drones can automatically survey crops every morning”. (…) “Closer to home, architects and real estate agents already use drones to scan buildings, sending them on automatic spirals around the scene to stitch hundreds of pictures into high-resolution 3D maps. Today you can already have a personal drone follow you around, tracking the phone in your pocket, and keeping a camera focused on you for the ultimate selfie.”

In this handout provided by Amazon.com, a remote aerial vehicle being called Prime Air that online retailer Amazon hopes to develop to deliver goods to customers takes flight. (Photo by Amazon via Getty Images)

7. Next-generation Genomics

The new advances in genomics combine the science used for imaging nucleotide base pairs (the units that make up DNA) with rapidly advancing computational and analytic capabilities. With an improved understanding of the genomic structure of humans, t will be possible to manipulate genes and improve health diagnostics and treatments. Next-generation genomics knowledge can be extended to a better understanding of plants and animals, that can radically improve agriculture. Genomics was considered by Erik Schmidt the most important disruption coming up, according to an appearance on Bloomberg TV in December of 2013:

“The biggest disruption that we don’t really know what’s going to happen is probably in the genetics area. The ability to have personal genetics records and the ability to start gathering all of the gene sequencing into places will yield discoveries in cancer treatment and diagnostics over the next year that that are unfathomably important.”

8. Next generation Storage

Energy-storage devices or physical systems store energy for later use. These technologies, such as lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells, already power electric and hybrid vehicles, along with billions of portable consumer electronics. Over the coming decade, advancing energy-storage technology could make electric vehicles cost competitive, bring electricity to remote areas of developing countries, and improve the efficiency of the utility grid. There are calculations that state that 40 to 100 percent of vehicles in 2025 can be electric or hybrid.

9.3D Printing

Manufacturing techniques that create objects by printing successive layers of material using digital models might become more accessible to the common person due to the 3D Printers. Consumers use of 3 D printing could make them save a lot of money in cost per printed product, while allowing the customer to his or her own personalized customization. It can also be used in bioprinting of tissue and organs, direct product manufacturing, tool and mold manufacturing. With a 3D printer you can essentially build your own thing. Another interesting aspects is the new materials that can be used in 3D printers, which have all sorts of new properties.

3D printing technology. Image source : Futuretimeline.net

10. Advanced Materials

Materials that have superior characteristics such as better strength and conductivity or enhanced functionality such as memory or self healing capabilities, will bring various benefits to the most widespread types of industries.

2015 Chevrolet Colorado is that it has been built with engineering techniques and lightweight materials.

11. Advanced Oil and Gas Exploration and Recovery

Advances in exploration and recovery techniques that enables extraction of additional oil and gas.

12. Renewable Electricity

Generation of electricity from renewable sources, such as the sun and the wind, will reduced harmful climate impact. Its components technologies are photovoltaic cells, wind turbines, concentrated solar power, hydroelectric and ocean-wave power, geothermal energy.

Businesses and governments should be prepared to respond to these technologies. And the best way to do it is to be continuously implementing those technologies, by looking for business-model innovations that can capture some of that value. On the other hand Policy makers can implement advanced technology to improve their own operational challenges. One of the aspects in society that will mostly change will be the nature of work. This will require continuous retraining programs and an investment on education. Governments can use some of these technologies, such as the mobile Internet, for example, to facilitate new educational and training programs. To develop a more harmonious and useful view of technology’s impact, governments may also want to consider new metrics that capture more than GDP effects.

All the disruptive technologies reviewed in this article are already a fact and will provoke big changes in society. To have the right approach and preparedeness to deal with those changes is important. With the right measures, policy makers can help adapt these disruptive technologies to the public wellfare of society.

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